Cities holding, for example, international swimming meets require facilities housing olympic size swimming pools of a minimum depth to exceed 6'6". In preparing the meet, the City Councils are each faced with a dilemma. Once the competition is over--then what? The pool would in effect be restricted to swimmers; children, non-swimmers and those who enjoy mixing swimming with small talk, while wading, would effectively be barred the pool's use. The addition of a wading pool would only add to the cost, and complicate the construction of the facilities.
A suggested response to the dilemma has been the variable pool platform, variable from a position adjacent the bottom of the pool to a position permitting wading. However, none of the structures proposed to date have provided the safety and reliability desired.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,052,893 proposes a pool platform secured for adjustment on threaded rods on either side of the pool for changing the depth of the pool. However, such proposal is impractical and unsafe. Levelling the platform would be difficult and in time with the wearing of the coupling of the platform to the threaded rods, the platform becomes less reliable. At that time, the safety would be questionable and a person cleaning under the platform could be killed if the platform should slide down the rods. For similar reasons, the structure shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,435,465 is both impractical and unsafe. While levelling the structure shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,935,600 would not be an insurmountable problem, it suffers the other deficiencies discussed above.
It is therefore, an object of this invention to provide a pool platform and components therefor, which overcome the aforementioned difficulties with the prior art.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a pool platform (and components therefor) that is safe, easy to use, and permits easy access for cleaning and maintenance with complete safety.
Further and other objects of the invention will be realized by those skilled in the art from the following summary of the invention and detailed description of the preferred embodiments thereof.